Effective use of storage media and/or channel capacity has been the aim of many data processing systems. Management of video data is particularly important because video requires a medium or channel with high capacity, typically many megabytes of data per minute. One way to reduce the medium or channel capacity required is by converting a full motion video into a multimedia presentation showing salient visuals and/or video segments with corresponding audio rather than full motion video.
A video is also a pre-packaged presentation which has a fixed pace. This fixed pace is a limitation and is particularly problematic when videos are used in the educational context. This is because it assumes that the absorption rate of each member of the target audience is the same. A multimedia presentation comprising of slides and video segments, on the other hand, provides a higher level of interactivity in the sense that the user has the option to view any one slide or video segment for a longer or shorter time period, as required. A further advantage of such a multimedia presentation is that it can be easily augmented with supplementary information, thereby adding further value to the content.
Parent application Ser. No. 09/215,004 teaches and claims, inter alia, the conversion of full motion video into a slide show with synchronized audio. The video sequence of audio-video data is divided into segments, each comprising a group of frames. For each segment at least one representative keyframe is extracted. From the extracted frame(s) a significance measure is calculated. The significance measure can be determined from a level of relative movement between frames. The selected slide frames are synchronized with the audio stream to create a slide show.
There can be instances, however, where there is a low degree of relative movement between video frames, and yet the segment is important for reason of containing meaningful information or rich audio content.